[RE-wrenches] Sonnen Battery & Outback Radian Inverter

Mark Frye markf at berkeleysolar.com
Sat Jun 18 09:06:17 PDT 2016


What could be simpler?

For some reason I can't help think of the Great Leap Forward in Chine 
where Mao had all the peasants gathering up all the iron objects and 
melting them down in small furnaces to help increase steel production. 
Of course none of the "steel" was any good.

I guess it is because here I see a bunch of great industrial control 
equipment stuffed into a tiny box and dropped in someones basement. 
That's alot of stuff waiting to break or hang up or reset or something.

I really have to wonder what the operating state of this piece of 
equipment will be in 3 years and if still operational, how many 
person-hours of support and maintenance will have been expended.

Mark Frye

On 6/18/2016 4:48 AM, Chris Mason wrote:
> Here's the internals of the one we installed.
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/m0ie2tuqe7y1x9d/2016-06-15%2011.01.43.jpg?dl=0
> It's a Radian, the batteries are Sony, there's a PLC in the door 
> controlling everything, and a Vera Z-Wave controller for the 
> programmable outlets.
> The BMS is on the door, connected by the long cable you see at the 
> bottom. It's not really long enough, which I complained about.
> The transfer switch is a Generac component, very reliable unit, rated 
> at 200A.
> There is a DIN rail next to the inverter that holds all the internal 
> wiring, metering, external connections.
> One thing I would advocate, never try to make any connections with 
> this unit powered up. It is very tight in there and the risk of 
> touching a live terminal is high.
> There is a 200A main breaker and a battery breaker, which is software 
> controlled for powering down from the front panel. Startup requires 
> holding in a DC breaker for the electronics for a few seconds then 
> engaging the main battery breaker. The instructions says five seconds 
> but I find it takes about 15.
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Jun 17, 2016 at 9:54 PM, Gary Willett 
> <Gary at icarussolarservices.com <mailto:Gary at icarussolarservices.com>> 
> wrote:
>
>     Enclosed is a photo of what appears to be a test/lab Sonnen system
>     published in the 01/30/2016 edition of "Power Magazine.
>
>     Can plainly see the 8kW Outback Radian inverter and I assume four
>     12V Sonnen (Sony?) 8kWh Lithium-Ion batteries. Assume this is a
>     "standard" 48V Radian inverter.
>
>     http://www.powermag.com/german-battery-firm-sonnen-moves-into-u-s-home-solar-storage-market/
>
>     Regards,
>
>     Gary Willett
>
>     Icarus Engineering LLC
>
>
>
>     On 6/17/16 2:09 PM, Chris Mason wrote:
>>     Yes, correct on both. The generator support is there, I did not
>>     use it.
>>
>>     On Fri, Jun 17, 2016 at 3:07 PM, Carl Adams
>>     <swingjunkie at gmail.com <mailto:swingjunkie at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>>         Chris,
>>
>>         Nice finish on the Sonnen install.  It looks fabulous.  My
>>         understanding is the Eco 2-8 integrate the 4kW radian, and
>>         the 10-16 incorporates the 8kW radian.  I assume generator
>>         support is fully supported
>>
>>         On Fri, Jun 17, 2016 at 8:35 AM, Chris Mason
>>         <cometenergysystems at gmail.com
>>         <mailto:cometenergysystems at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>>             I promised a picture of the Sonnen installation. As these
>>             units are getting close to being appliances in the same
>>             vein as home audio, we wanted to have a clean finish so
>>             we made some mill work to complete the top of the unit to
>>             the ceiling and hide the ugly conduits.
>>             https://www.dropbox.com/s/vlh0uumlgf5549g/2016-06-15%2011.00.44-1.jpg?dl=0
>>
>
>
>     _______________________________________________
>     List sponsored by Redwood Alliance
>
>     List Address: RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
>     <mailto:RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
>
>     Change listserver email address & settings:
>     http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>
>     List-Archive:
>     http://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/maillist.html
>
>     List rules & etiquette:
>     www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm
>     <http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm>
>
>     Check out or update participant bios:
>     www.members.re-wrenches.org <http://www.members.re-wrenches.org>
>
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Chris Mason
> NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer™
> Solar Design Engineer
> Generac Generators Industrial technician
>
> www.cometsolar.com <http://www.cometenergysystems.com>
> 264.235.5670
> 869.662.5670
> Skype: netconcepts
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> List sponsored by Redwood Alliance
>
> List Address: RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
>
> Change listserver email address & settings:
> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>
> List-Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/maillist.html
>
> List rules & etiquette:
> www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm
>
> Check out or update participant bios:
> www.members.re-wrenches.org
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org/attachments/20160618/2a3194b9/attachment-0002.html>


More information about the RE-wrenches mailing list